Apricot-Ginger Glazed Cornish Games Hens

Cornish Game Hen always sounded so fancy so I never thought of making it myself until I saw Alton doing some cool hen grilling (using a brick wrapped in foil for pete's sake) and I thought... hmmm... now I could probably do that!

quick props to Lins for telling me about Alton on the show "Good Eats" on food network... he's a wacky, nerdy type science guy, but he gets into WHY we do what, the tools, the safety, etc. If you get a chance to watch the episode, it was called "working with fowl" or "preparing game" or something. He showed lots of nifty meat thermometers... by the way, I need to get one so I am going to start myself a wish list... and come to think of it, a list of spices I now have and ingredients I have tried... well it's a good thought... we'll see what comes of it.

Anyway...
I really wanted to try the game hen the way Alton showed it, but I think maybe I'm not ready. He did something with bacon to make whatever flavoring the game hen needed. He showed a couple ways to cook the birds... one was in a pan, one was on the grill... both requiring a brick wrapped in foil and pre-heated. There were too many steps, I was fresh out of bricks and bacon, and I needed to cook the birds pronto. Maybe next time Alton... now that I do not fear the small fowl, I just might brave out and spread my flightless wings... later.

After consulting my office mate, Katie, I decided to go with the apricot-ginger glazed version... why? it boasted shorter cook time and shorter prep time... right up my alley. Oh and there was no stuffing and nothing really all that crazy in the way of ingredients and prep.

Some caveats...

I was quite pleased that the birds came organ-less... though let me say that in this recipe you have to slice it in half and cutting through bone is not all that cool... particularly since my good knife was still MIA.

Learned a little something about ginger - not all that easy to mince it. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to try to do this with a garlic press... yeah not so much. Didn't know those holes aren't really for making really tiny pieces of garlic... bummer. So I have since purchased a grater, but until I find one that works better, I am going to say working with ginger root is not really my best friend...

Not only am I missing my knife and an appropriate too with which to grate ginger, but the recipe says to use a "roasting pan and rack" and while I've got the rack, my roasting pan is missing... so irritating. Thought I'd share how improvisation skills came into play... I used the grill rack from my little portable barbecue over a flat square pan. The hens took up more space on the grill rack than was covered underneath by the pan, so I put a cookie sheet beneath the whole thing... pretty funny... but it worked out ok.

I was cooking 2 birds, each weighing about 1.5 lbs, but the recipe called for birds that were about a pound... thanks to Lori, I was able to confidently adjust the temperature and timing reasonably... if only you knew how big of a step that sadly is! haha!


I think yummy sounding glazes might be a little bit of a waste for me as I am not a fan of the skin... but I am sure it did contribute to the flavor of the meat at least some. Next time, maybe I'll get a little under the skin just for kicks.

Had corn on the cob and canned peas with this... pretty tasty!


http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_22347,00.html?rsrc=search

PS Must tell Katie's story of trying to cook a whole chicken with a can of beer on the grill, which seriously deterred my idea of roasting these birds on the grill until I'm a little more savvy... apparently the recipe she followed didn't mention that it would be good to put the chicken on one side and the heat on the other so the chicken would cook by indirect heat and drippings wouldn't fall directly into the fire. Oh and apparently it's a good idea to put a pan under said chicken as well... the result of doing neither? crazy flames engulfed the chicken and nearly blew the place up. Good thing this fire-fighter's daughter had her trusty fire extinguisher handy, right? so busted! which reminds me... I don't think I'll be grilling any chickens til I have an extinguisher of my own...added to the list. :-)